Thursday, September 16, 2010

A law firm based in Houston has sued BP (NYSE:BP) over claims they exposed people in the area to Benzene from the incident at the Texas City refinery. The firm, Vujasinovic & Beckcom, represent 120 people who've made the claims.

The incident is in connection to a malfunction of a hydrogen compressor at the ultracracker unit of the refinery.

All 120 of the plaintiffs work at the refinery or live close to it.

In a statement, Vujasinovic & Beckcom said, “As a result of this re-routing, a number of dangerous chemicals, including benzene, began releasing in to the air. These chemicals were continuously released while BP tried to fix the compressor. BP did not fix the compressor until May 16, 2010.”

The rerouting refers to flaring the gasses while they worked to fix the compressor.

Approximately 538,000 pounds of benzene was released into the air during that time, according to the complaint.